aliced

To all you Spain travelers at the Alhambra, be sure and NOT toss your printed-out ticket away at the first receptacle after the first gate as did our well-world-traveler friend did. He tossed it out, not thinking that he'd need it to get into the Nasrid Palace down the path a bit. No, they did not admit him even though our tickets read "1 of 4, 2 of 4, etc." He waited albeit impatiently for us while we enjoyed the Palace. Live and learn.....

Nelson

Thanks for the comments on my itinerary, much appreciated.

Originally Seville was high on the list of places to visit, on my wife's bucket list for years, along with Toledo. But as we decided to make the area around Cazorla an important part of our travels, Seville was replaced by Cordoba. This was partially due to transportation logistics, and also because we were looking for quieter towns this time around. Fodorites kja, kimhe, and others steered us to Cordoba, which wasn't even on our original plan.

In any case, something tells me this will not be a last visit to Spain, and there is a Seville trip in our future, progol.

maitaitom, glad to hear you enjoyed Toledo as well. Looking forward to your TR, with hopefully the location of the large GT.

aliced, we'll make sure to hold on to our Alhambra tickets. I just checked, October tix not yet on sale.

crosscheck

Looking forward to hearing about Ubeda and Cazorla. Next time we plan to spend more time off the beaten track, as we did when we visited Catalonia.

As far as Sevilla, I'm with kja. You can always add an easy day trip from Córdoba (45 minutes by AVE). Córdoba didn't seem that much quieter to me. Sevilla has many quiet and atmospheric neighborhoods without a tourist in sight. Yes it is lively, but also otherworldly.

Looking forward to your Alhambra thoughts. A full morning plus lunch was perfect for us, especially because Granada was great for wandering around and soaking up the culture. But I realize that we are very ADD about our sightseeeing compared to everyone else.

kja

"Fodorites kja, kimhe, and others steered us to Cordoba, which wasn't even on our original plan."

Well, I certainly don't belong in the same class as kimhe -- but I did love Cordoba and hope you do, too! Did any of us mention the Palacio de Viana de Córdoba? It is basically of museum of courtyards that I thought showcased Cordoba quite wonderfully.
http://www.palaciodeviana.com/en/

Many people mention the ease of a day trip from Sevilla to Cordoba, without noting that the reverse is just as easy. Time permitting, you could easily go to Sevilla for a day trip -- enough to get a taste and decide how or whether to fit it into a subsequent trip.

Enjoy!

fanuj

indeed, the ticket master does not want to sell me the Alhambra ticket, tried many times on the date available and it simply cannot registered me.
I finally got a tour on a sunday afternoon and have to leave Granada that day and head for Toledo. Sunday everything turns sleepy it seems. The only way out after the tour would be via a rental car and I have to go to the airport location for that (everything closes shop in town).
Can someone shed some light?

kja

@ fanuj -- you are right, many things in Spain close mid-day on Sunday and don't open again until Tuesday. There may be exceptions, but I would guess that you will need to invest some time and energy to find them. Good luck!

Nelson

crosscheck and kja, I'll float the Seville day trip idea to my wife, We can at least have it in our bucket of options. Thanks.

We do have one day trip planned from Cordoba: our last full day we'll rent the car and go to Madinat al-Zahra and the Almodovar Castle. We want to see those and that should be a nice trial run with the car before we head out to Jaen.

kja, I have seen you recommend the Viana Courtyards before, it's definitely on our list. We have a small brick patio with a central fountain and stone planter boxes all around, so this is right up our alley so to speak. I'm afraid my wife will get a lot of new new ideas.

She already said we might need a little pergola like this:
http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_laa52pTkOZ1qzygye.jpg

annhig

you got me there, Nelson.

crosscheck

Where's the like button?

aliced

Not to mention in all of Spain, Cordoba had the best sangria (I keep such important notations in my journal....).

Do you think Alhambra is cutting-edge saavy (like our fabulous new Freedom Tower in NYC) and sells timed tickets right to/fro your smartphone??

kja

Oh, Nelson, if your wife likes patios, then I'm sure she will love Cordoba! One of the guidebooks I used in planning my time there said that whenever someone has left a door open, so that you can see his/her/their courtyard, then it is OK to step in to see it. I must admit that I felt like an intruder every time I did that, but oooh my, I'm so glad I did! There was usually a gate at the entrance to the courtyard, and I never stepped beyond that -- just through the usually rather small entry hall, but I did have some lovely peeks into some truly enticing little spaces. I wonder if anyone else knows if it really is acceptable to do that? Or maybe it WAS acceptable, but the norms have since changed?

Nelson

Tickets for October went on sale this morning.

I was planning to get a 9:00 AM entry to the palaces for our date in late October, but the 9:00 AM slot was already sold out.

So I switched to 9:30, which had 6 tickets left, and then Capitol One rejected my card due to suspicious activity! A panicked call to their fraud department and the guy opened up the account and stayed on the line while I resubmitted the request. It went through OK that time.

The night palace ticket purchase went without a hitch.

Still trying for the afternoon garden visit for the day before, but seemed to have hit a glitch on ticketmaster site, as the request isn't even getting through to Capitol One. Will try again later.

kja, thanks for the info on the patios, my wife should be in heaven. I'll have to find out what hardware store they use so I can build that little pergola she wants.

crosscheck

Hi Nelson, Maybe you should ask your hotel to get you the tickets. Ours offered but I had already purchased them.

kja

@ Nelson -- great progress! I'm glad to hear you are 2/3 of the way there.

EYWandBTV

Hi Nelson,

I just bought tickets for entry to the Nazaries Palace at 10 am on Oct. 18 (there were only 6 left), and then tickets to the Generalife for the afternoon entry slot, 2 pm to 6 pm (it closes earlier beginning Oct. 1). All went smoothly. This is my idea, to get the additional tickets for the Generalife gardens in the afternoon. That way we can have a lazy late lunch somewhere, at the Parador or Hotel America, and then slide over to the Generalife later that afternoon. The ticket to the Generalife is only 8 euro, so if we finish everything earlier, tant mieux, more time for amontillado.

Nelson

Success!

I switched over to my wife's card and then it went through OK. Maybe a reasonable 2 transaction per day limit on a card, since no one in their right mind would buy 3 separate tickets?

As you say EYWandBTV, it's only 8 euro, so even if we pop into the gardens for an an hour or two then it's money well spent. Confess I had to look up amontillado, but sign me up!

Thanks for the suggestion, crosscheck.

kja

"no one in their right mind would buy 3 separate tickets"

I am not -- and don't remember ever claiming to be -- in my right mind. ;-)

Congrats, Nelson and EYWandBTV!

annhig

yes, congrats indeed on getting your tickets [well almost].

don't forget to take the SAME credit card with you to use in the ticket machine when you get there.

Nelson

Thanks for that reminder annhig. I understand we must bring that exact card, even if a new number has been issued to the account.

We are staying at the Hotel Guadalupe, mentioned by you in another thread, so will wander over to the main entrance to pick up our tickets.

This Alhambra decision had a lot of moving parts, like getting certain permits in popular U.S. National Parks. Glad that is now settled!

annhig

Thanks for that reminder annhig. I understand we must bring that exact card, even if a new number has been issued to the account.>>

mmm - not sure about that, I have to say. if you have a new card on the same account, simply because the old one has expired, then I would bring both.

I'm not sure why a "new number" would be issued to a credit card account, but perhaps I have misunderstood.

hope you enjoy the Guadalupe!